Kokoda: 39th Battalion - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
INSPIRED by the heroic true story of a small band of untrained army recruits whose outstanding courage and bravery proved to be pivotal in saving Australia from an imminent Japanese invasion during World War II, Kokoda: 39th Battalion is an unforgettable war movie that graphically portrays the devastating horrors of jungle warfare.
The debut feature from director Alister Grierson and the winner of the Special Jury Award at 2007 Houston International Film Festival, Kokoda: 39th Battalion is now available on DVD.
The year is 1942 and Japanese troops are blazing a bloody trail across the island of Papua New Guinea in an attempt to forge a stronghold that will allow them to launch an invasion on the Australian mainland.
With the Australian forces already stretched to breaking point, the responsibility for advancing along the Kokoda Trail, the island’s key supply route, falls to the untrained, inexperienced and inadequately armed volunteer and conscript members of the 39th Battalion.
Referred to by the enlisted men as “chocos” – chocolate soldiers who would melt in the heat of battle – a small patrol of men find themselves separated from the main battalion, trapped behind enemy lines and cut off from supplies and with no forms of communication. Among their number are two brothers, Jack and Max, both sworn to look out for the other until the end.
Stranded for days in an unforgiving, steep-sloped jungle landscape, battered by torrential rain and weakened by dysentery, malaria, foot rot and starvation, the exhausted band of young recruits barely manages to endure numerous stealth attacks from the Japanese to emerge from the jungle and join their fellow soldiers back at base.
But their arrival coincides with the news that a key location on the island is about to fall to the Japanese. Despite being ill and battle fatigued beyond belief, the “chocos” pick themselves up and prepare to rejoin the battle for a final showdown that will change the course of the war.
A suspenseful, memorable and moving portrayal of bravery and the power of the human spirit to overcome insurmountable odds in hellish conditions, Kokoda: 39th Battalion is a fitting tribute to the real life heroes who fought in the campaign that resulted in the Allies’ first victory over the Japanese during the course of World War II.
Kokoda: 39th Battalion (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£12.99) by Showbox Home Entertainment on June 30, 2008. Features include: Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio options; chapter index; trailers.